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I recently picked up a Slugger dry cut chop saw. I have not used it enough to comment on the cost per cut data, but can give my initial impression on its cutting abilities. Slugger sells blades optimized for SS, mild steel, and aluminum. I purchased the mild and SS blades. The blades are costly, but may outlast carborundum, and will not lose cutting capacity as it wears. The saw cuts very clean and square, leaving a thin very sharp burr which is easy to remove. The shavings are very sharp also, so care is exersised when cleaning up! It cuts thin walled tubing very well up to .25" wall. On thick sections it is less than happy requiring slow feed pressure. I cut some 3" X 3" X 1/4 wall tubes for a fab table with good speed and nice square ends. If I were cutting 1/2" I would go to the bandsaw. Noise is about equal to carborundum, so hearing protection is a good idea. I don't miss the smell of carborundum in the morning either! Time will tell if dry saws are cost effective.
Russ

I bought the saw from Westair in San Diego. There was a special going on that had the saw and 2 mild steel cutting blades for $399.00. They sell the blades separatly as well.
Here is a link to Jancy, who sells Slugger.http://www.jancy.com/index.cfm?fusea...&productid=124
Russ

I have the milwaukee version of that saw, and i do like it. It's not perfect however, miters can be tough especially on short pieces, and the blades can go on you really fast if your not careful. I started out using a water based coolant from McMaster Carr. It's a bout 18 bucks a gallon and you dilute it 20:1 so it is economoical. I put it in a squirt bottle, and keep the cut very wet. Using this method my first blade lasted longer than i thought it would. In fact i got lazy and stopped using the coolant, shortly thereafter my blade went dull, so i mounted the spare and wiped it out in a few cuts on thin 4130!! (milwaukee blades) i then bought the freud blades from e-bay i tried a few cuts without coolant to test and they work well, but from now on i use the little squirt bottle (well worth 20 bucks!). One note about cutting with this type of saw, you will be tempted to cut flat or solid stock, with the blade against the widest side (flat bar flat in the clamp, i think you can cut wider than standing it up) do NOT do it!! It kills blades, i have hard it reccomended that no more than 2-3 teeth should engage the metal at any one time, i would stick to this reccomedation. Cut with the narrowest side of the material facing the blade, and try to orient the blade (by adjusting the holding clamp)so this is true. And use the coolant!

Thanks for the info Laiky,
I discovered right away that it is best to stand flatbar vertically when cutting from a speed standpoint. I also noticed that the saw head bounces a little when cutting the other way.
When it is unavoidable to cut flat, like in cutting large square tube, all you can do is feed lightly. It still cuts fairly fast with light feed pressure. I also lift back out every few seconds to allow some cooling air to get to the teeth. Too bad it's hard to hold square tube standing on one corner so you're cutting no flat sections! I want to test my first blade without coolant to see how she goes. Less pre-weld cleanup and mess. I use my bandsaw dry too for that reason. Bandsaw blades are cheap though.
Do you get any rusting with the Mc Master coolant? Does it wash off the steel with water?
Russ

Just used a Rigid recip saw blade, 24 tpi, to cut through 4" stainless steel exhaust pipe like butter.

The issue isn't just making a cut, the issue is prepping for welding, which requires a precise cut.

Up to about 15 gauge stainless - 3" and 4" I use dry cut blade. I have used an abrassive blade in the past but the kerf varies with how much heat is generated and quite frankly the cleanup is too much.

Often I buy pre-bent tubing (just don't have $40,000 laying around for a mandrel bender) and need to bi-sect the angle. I have used abrasive blades in a miter saw (that doesn't work well because the abrassive blades heat the metal and melt through the plastic insert on these wood cutting saws).
I like vertical band saws the best.

Now, on that last one, the plate that mounts on the saw is very stable/straight etc. The problem is the saw table is not. A little warpage here and there, just enough to throw things off. You will want to flame bend it a bit.... tiny bit, to get everything 100% level or the tubing will rock.

I have 'outriggers' welded on both sides of the table - scroll down on that last page and see the miter gauge attachment. Those aren't perfect, but they are good enough. The miter gauge attachment are tack welded on both sides and as parallel as I can measure. I have a stainless steel plate that mates up to them and gives me the alignment that I need. I have done 3" stainless that way and needs very very minor cleanup with sander.

For sander I have a delta combo with 6" wide belt + 12" disk. 12" disk can handle 3" exhaust just fine. I haven't tried larger. I think it can do 4" though.

I'll try to get a picture up later.

Note: dewault Portaband are in many respects better than Milwaukee - built-in work light, better protection around wheels etc. But they don't move as fast and they don't have a lock holding trigger down.

As for using sawsall, I have recently cut apart a stocker exhaust system (my wife's Durango, nothing special) and welded it back together with some 3/32 rod. Looks were not important and a I don't think I could have gotten my TIG torch in there anyway (I have no short cap for the WP17 on my little Maxstar).
Note, stick welding went OK until I set the creeper on fire... I see this bright light behind the helmet.... Just a quick flair up. No damage, no injury. Just a few stray arc strikes as I got out of there.